Ideas and Projects: Informal Educational Methodologies
Non-Formal Education
by Daria Vesna
Additional ways to develop personality A student is not a vessel which should be filled, but a torch which should be lit. Plutarch
T
he crisis in the educational system, at the turn of the millennium, has become an almost universal phenomenon. This is due to the fact that mankind cannot keep up with technological progress: nowadays, knowledge can be acquired very easily;
there is no longer a need to pore over the books in the quiet of the library, one-click of a computer mouse and you get access to all the necessary information. Moreover, the public educational system is still using methods which became obsolete half a century 38
ago – it’s no surprise that today's children resist the violent means of hammering old knowledge into their heads. Informal education is in the line of fire between these two elements, the state and childhood, and it is continuing to evolve and to recapture new bases.
Informal education (IE) is an alternative to the standardized education system. If parents desire to give their child more or something fundamentally different than a traditional school program the choices are rather broad: from institutions aimed at deeper spiritual development, to specialized institutions,
which immerse children in a particular science. For example, Waldorf schools, which have a widespread network worldwide, put concepts of extrasensory perception and creative thinking at the lead of its teaching methods, using the notion of “complete articulation of an evolutionary development”, meaning that the child is taught only as much as he or she can learn without inner resistance at each age stage. Another example of specialized institutions is the network of “Mathnasium” learning centers, where children are taught the greatest sciences of all, mathematics, using the slogan “Children do not hate mathematics a passion for it comes with understanding, and that is our mission”. "Imagine a school where children are free to be themselves; where success is determined not by academic achievement but by the child’s own understanding of success; where the principles of democracy are predominant, where every child is a personality and has the right to be heard; and where you can play all day or just sit and daydream”. These are not fantasies, but the basic principles of the famous Summerhill School, founded in 1921 by Alexander Sutherland Neill in the town of Leiston, near London. Geniuses, misunderstood by the time in which they lived, existed in every age - in the early twentieth century, Neill’s idea of the child’s right to freedom and personal choice seemed unacceptable to many, but he was convinced that children should be given the power